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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740594">The Victims of Protocol Thirteen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceDelta12/pseuds/AceDelta12'>AceDelta12</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe because Garreg Mach Monastery is a floating battleship, Oneshot, Rhea lives because dragon, Seteth and Flayn live and I don't even know why, This whole fanfic is a reference to the Clone Wars season 7 finale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:48:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,982</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740594</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceDelta12/pseuds/AceDelta12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhea had been aware of the Empire's plan to break away from the Church of Seiros. So when Edelgard reveals herself as the Flame Emperor, Rhea initiates Protocol Thirteen: the command for all members of the Church of Seiros to eliminate those affiliated with the Adrestian Empire.</p><p>Or: In which Rhea has her own version of Order 66 to use against the Adrestian Empire.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Victims of Protocol Thirteen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here are the fifteen Seiros Protocols, which can be initiated by the Archbishop or anyone who she believes is worthy of such power. (In FE3H, this would be Rhea and Seteth.) Those who have it can transmit their voices across all of Fodlan to reach the ears of any who consider themselves with the Church, effectively taking control of their minds.</p><p>NOTE: Rhea's voice can affect Seteth, but Seteth's voice cannot affect Rhea.</p><p> </p><p>Protocol One: The monastery is done for, and all are to immediately abandon it.<br/>Protocol Two: Fodlan has grown too wicked, and the Church is to abandon it and let it suffer the goddess's wrath.<br/>Protocol Three: The outside world is closing in on Fodlan. All are to bear arms against the invaders.<br/>Protocol Four: The monastery has fallen under invasion, and all are to return and defend it.<br/>Protocol Five: All Heroes' Relics are to be obtained and immediately delivered to the Church.<br/>Protocol Six: All are to spread the religion of the Church of Seiros across the world by any means necessary.<br/>Protocol Seven: Attempted thievery of valuable artifacts within the monastery has been executed. The monastery is to undergo immediate lockdown.<br/>Protocol Eight: The Archbishop has identified one who has defiled the Church. All are to kill him on sight.<br/>Protocol Nine: The descendants of the Ten Elites can no longer be trusted, and all are to kill them on sight.<br/>Protocol Ten: The underground ones have staged an assault, and all are to kill those in Abyss and those who show sympathy to them on sight.<br/>Protocol Eleven: The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus has attempted a coup, and all affiliated with it must be eliminated on sight.<br/>Protocol Twelve: The Leicester Alliance has attempted a coup, and all affiliated with it must be eliminated on sight.<br/>Protocol Thirteen: The Adrestian Empire has attempted a coup, and all affiliated with it must be eliminated on sight.<br/>Protocol Fourteen: The Archbishop is to be placed under immediate arrest, and is to be killed if he or she should attempt resist.<br/>Protocol Fifteen: Fodlan has risen against the Church, and all of it must be destroyed by any means necessary.</p><p>Those who refuse any of the Fifteen Protocols are to be demoted from their rank and executed.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The battle in the Holy Tomb had ended, and Edelgard was put in front of Byleth and Archbishop Rhea.</p><p>"Professor. Kill Edelgard at once. She is a danger to all of Fodlan. Such a rebellious heart cannot be allowed to keep beating."</p><p>Byleth turned to Rhea. "No. I will not kill Edelgard. I trust her more than I ever trusted the Church."</p><p>Rhea remained oddly calm. Byleth knew her true form--The Immaculate One. He was prepared should that be her plan.</p><p>"You were supposed to kill her. This is how it was supposed to go." she said.</p><p>Beside her, Catherine tried to calm her down. "Lady Rhea..."</p><p>"The time has come." Rhea said, her voice echoing far more than the Holy Tomb would have allowed.</p><p>"Lady Rhea, please wait!" Flayn said. "I know what you want to do! This isn't-"</p><p>"<strong>Execute Protocol Thirteen</strong>."</p><p>Catherine and Flayn immediately turned silent as their heads looked to the floor.</p><p>"As you wish, Archbishop." they said together, drawing their weapons.</p><p>Before they moved, Hubert appeared behind Byleth and Edelgard. "What is the meaning of this?"</p><p>The three of them received no answer as Catherine and Flayn ran up to strike them down.</p><p>Byleth blocked their attacks with the Sword of the Creator, and Hubert launched them to the side with a Banshee.</p><p>"Their minds are corrupted. It is likely that they will revert back once the Archbishop dies. Try not to kill them, but do so if there is no other option."</p><p>Byleth picked up a Killer Axe and handed it to Edelgard. "I believe this belongs to you, your majesty."</p><p>"Thank you, Professor. Now let's get the others and get out of here. But we need a diversion."</p><p>"I have an idea." Hubert said. "My teleportation can't take us far, but it should be able to take us where we need to be."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Byleth entered the magic-proofed room where Solon was detained.</p><p>"Ahh, Fell Star. You return to execute me."</p><p>"No, I'm here to free you." Byleth said, cutting the chains binding him with the Sword of the Creator. "Go make some chaos happen in the monastery. That's all you're capable of, after all."</p><p>"On that, we agree." Solon said. "But I will be watching you with great interest."</p><p>"I'm not rooting for you, Solon." Byleth said. "Now get going."</p><p>"Yes, of course. We have a Church to annihilate, do we not?" Solon said before teleporting away.</p><p>Byleth walked out of the cell. "It's done. Let's find the others and leave the monastery for good." he said to Edelgard and Hubert.</p><p>"I'm fresh out of teleports, but I do have experience with riding pegasi." Hubert said.</p><p>"At this point, everyone has experience with either pegasi or wyerns, because the entire monastery is floating above the clouds." Edelgard said.</p><p>"Neither of which we have a whole lot of." Byleth said. "Let's get moving."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Solon appeared in the reactor chamber that kept the monastery afloat.</p><p>"Now...to finally exact our revenge on the Nabateans!"</p><p>He sent dark magic through the floor and into the reactor, causing it to rupture and explode as Dark Spikes shot through it, followed by a massive Banshee twice the size of a Demonic Beast that tore through the rest of the room.</p><p>Satisfied, and knowing the monastery was doomed to crash, Solon teleported away.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Alarms began going off throughout the battleship monastery as Byleth, Edelgard, and Hubert made their way to the Goddess Tower to figure out what was going on.</p><p>"Right there." they heard.</p><p>They turned around to see Shamir pointing her bow at them.</p><p>"Can't believe my luck. The Emperor, her assistant, and the traitorous Professor all in my sights. You'd barely get a breath in before all three of you were dead."</p><p>"Shamir, wait." Byleth said. "You aren't a Knight. You don't have to obey the protocol."</p><p>"She's my employer." Shamir responded after a second. "I do what my contract says."</p><p>"Did your contract ever say you had to kill your closest friends?"</p><p>"I...no, it didn't..." The strength of her pull on the bowstring began to weaken.</p><p>"You know at this point that following the contract will cost you your life. And you value your life over your contract, do you not?"</p><p>"Yes, I do." Shamir said as she lowered her bow.</p><p>Byleth slowly walked up to her. "A powerful dragon woman who could easily take your life is giving you the command to shoot down your friend. Would you let fear consume you? Or would you overcome?"</p><p>Shamir didn't respond.</p><p>Byleth stuck his hand out. "The choice is yours."</p><p>After several seconds, Shamir took it. "Consider me no longer affiliated with the Church of Seiros."</p><p>"Excellent." Byleth said. "Now let's get out of here."</p><p>The four of them heard neighing and the occasional roar, and they looked to see pegasi and wyverns fleeing the monastery, and they could clearly see that it was going to crash, as the clouds were above them and floating upward away from them.</p><p>Byleth felt a breath of relief seeing that with the exceptions of Edelgard and Hubert, the two students next to him, every single student in the Academy had made it out with their lives.</p><p>The thrusters stopped working, and the artificial gravity failed soon after. Everyone could feel the monastery very slowly begin to tilt onto its side.</p><p>Legions upon legions of Knights, led by Catherine, assembled in the courtyard, blocking the only route to the stables.</p><p>Byleth looked at the army below them.</p><p>"We need to get out of here."</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Catherine saw Shamir approach them, holding Byleth's arm in one hand and the Sword of the Creator in the other.</p><p>"Shamir, you did it." Catherine said. "You know the protocol. Finish the job."</p><p>"You're mistaken." Shamir said. "Byleth was a Professor here before all this happened. He's not affiliated with the Adrestian Empire."</p><p>"Are you defying Lady Rhea, Shamir?" Catherine asked, drawing Thunderbrand.</p><p>"No. I'm stating why Professor Byleth should not be counted among the Adrestian-affiliated."</p><p>Catherine lowered Thunderbrand. "You always had an unusual way of doing things."</p><p>Shamir and Byleth looked at each other, then back at Catherine.</p><p>Catherine pointed Thunderbrand at them as the last of her light escaped her eyes. "<strong>Shamir Nevrand, y</strong><strong>ou are in violation of Protocol Thirteen. I accuse you of treason against the Church of Seiros. You will be demoted from rank of Knight of Seiros and subject to execution, along with the traitor Byleth Eisner!</strong>"</p><p>"Treason, is it? I figured as much." Shamir said.</p><p>"Open fire." Catherine ordered her mages and archers.</p><p>Shamir quickly handed Byleth the Sword of the Creator, and he transformed the blade into its whip form and created a barrier to absorb the spells and slice the arrows.</p><p>"Hurry up, Edelgard..." he muttered to himself.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Edelgard clung onto a flying Hubert, her Killer Axe in her hand.</p><p>"Get me to those pillars." Edelgard ordered.</p><p>Hubert flew by the pillars, and Edelgard held out her axe, cutting through all of them.</p><p>"I thought that would be enough..." Edelgard said. "Hubert, aim a Ragnarok at the pillars I just cut."</p><p>Hubert threw his strongest Ragnarok spell at the bases of the destroyed pillars, and it did what the original plan couldn't.</p><p>Slowly, the Goddess Tower began to lean until it finally broke and crashed down, crushing about three-quarters of the Knights.</p><p>"That should thin their numbers more." Edelgard said. "Let's help out Byleth and Shamir."</p><p>"As you wish, your majesty." Hubert said.</p><p>The battleship monastery began to tilt even more, and some of the Knights began to lose their footing.</p><p>Shamir finished a swordfight with Catherine and leapt over the hole the Goddess Tower had made. Catherine attempted to follow, but didn't make it and slipped into the hole.</p><p>"Shamir!" Catherine shouted before a large chunk of brick covered her.</p><p>The four of them fought their way to the stables, and to their shock, they found a wyvern still there.</p><p>Shamir and Byleth hurried to correctly put on the saddle as fast as they could, then the four of them climbed onto the wyvern and crashed through the ceiling, but the momentum of being lurched forward in her position caused Edelgard to accidentally slip off the wyvern.</p><p>"<strong>EDELGARD</strong>!" Hubert screamed.</p><p>The wyvern spun uncontrollably for a good ten seconds as the flaming wreckage fell around them before Shamir could get him straightened out and properly flying.</p><p>They searched the wreckage fervently for any trace of the Adrestian Emperor, for any sign of red among all the charcoal brown that was the brick used to make the monastery.</p><p>"There!" Byleth yelled, pointing.</p><p>They saw Edelgard somehow making her way <em>through</em> the wreckage, leaping from one piece of brick to another.</p><p>She saw them when she heard Byleth, and she began to make her way toward them.</p><p>She leapt toward the wyvern, but just barely missed Hubert's outstretched hand, instead crashing onto a large section of ceiling.</p><p>Unfazed, Edelgard tried again. This time, instead of leaping toward the wyvern, she jumped off the piece of debris and let herself enter a free-fall.</p><p>Shamir flew the wyvern just below her, desperately trying to slow down to the point where Edelgard could land on the wyvern without killing any of them.</p><p>Edelgard angled her body, trying to reach.</p><p>Eventually, she was able to grab a hold of a strap on the saddle. She gripped it with both hands, and Shamir pulled up on the wyvern's reins.</p><p>Hubert pulled her into her seat, tightly hugging her, as Byleth held her hands.</p><p>The battleship of Garreg Mach Monastery crashed onto the ground right next to the mountains as the lone wyvern flew away, its four passengers injured and partially dazed, but alive.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Hubert, Edelgard, and Shamir loaded the last of the supplies they scavenged from the wreckage and were about to climb onto their wyvern when Edelgard noticed Byleth.</p><p>They'd taken the time to make sure every single body they could find was buried. Various weapons stuck out from the burial mounds, each one having a Knight's helmet where the owner of the helmet was buried.</p><p>The only exception was Catherine, who was deliberately placed ahead of the other graves. Thunderbrand alone marked her grave.</p><p>Byleth stood in front of Catherine's grave, his father's jacket covering most of his body.</p><p>He drew the Sword. The blade glowed its familiar red, though he noticed it was very faint.</p><p>He watched it dwindle until the glow was completely gone.</p><p>He let the Sword of the Creator slip out of his grip, where it clattered to the ground in front of Catherine's grave.</p><p>After looking at the graves for another minute, Byleth turned around and headed for the wyvern. It was time to leave.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Nemesis approached the snow-covered ruins. Though he was grateful for the legion of mages that had resurrected him, there were times where he couldn't tolerate them.</p><p>The mages he glanced at each gave a respectful nod to their King before returning to their duties.</p><p>He approached the snow-covered graves, all but one marked with helmets.</p><p>He accidentally kicked something with his foot. He bent down to pick up what he'd discovered.</p><p>The Sword of the Creator.</p><p>He held it in a firm two-handed grip in front of him, and he saw the it begin to glow red, even without a Crest Stone. It was faint at first, but it slowly started to glow brighter.</p><p>"<strong>It's been a long time, old friend</strong>." Nemesis said to the Sword.</p><p>He glanced at the graves, allowing their deaths to be known once again, before turning and walking away.</p><p>"<strong>Return to base, men</strong>." Nemesis ordered the mages. "<strong>I've found what I've been looking for. Such a powerful blade will definitely serve Emperor Edelgard well</strong>."</p><p>He continued to walk away, unaware that Thunderbrand's Crest Stone was alive again, permanently marked with its glowing Crest.</p><p>The Crest of Flames.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was a oneshot I had planned for a long, LONG time, and I finally got around to writing it. Fittingly, I posted it on my 18th birthday!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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